WRAP: There are no plans to privatise Eskom - Gordhan

Gordhan is wrapping up now, and brings things back to Eskom's imbalance between cost and revenue. "The country should participate in that debate," he says.

"All 40 000 people in Eskom must become a lot more aware of the responsibility that we have to 60 million citizens, on the one hand, and the economy on the other hand,"he says.

He ends with a joke"If you leave about now you will avoid load shedding".

06 Dec 2018

Gordhan's top 10 quotes on load shedding and Eskom's 'double whammy'

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan was briefing the media on the latest operational matters at debt-laden power utility Eskom following days of load shedding. From state capture to Eskom's communication strategy, forensic reports and the cancellation of leave for managers, Gordhan did not hold back.

Gordhan says Eskom is working to make sure that there is no 'dark Christmas'.

"So to round up we are going to try our best to get to a point where load shedding disappears before Christmas," he says. "Some newspapers and media have been talking about dark Christmas...we are working very hard to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Second, we want to assure businesses that by the time you get back to work in January, we have much more stable situation".

06 Dec 2018

Gordhan says contractors at the Medupi and Kusile power stations have been falling short in design and quality, and a forensic investigation has started into what went wrong.

He mentions Hitachi, who were fined $19m by the SEC in the US in 2015 for corrupt payments to the ANC's investment arm Chancellor House.

Hitachi paid the fine but did not deny or confirm the charges.

"Somebody is making money out of doubling the cost of Medupi," says Gordhan.

The public enterprises minister says while Eskom may have 'suspicions' around who is inflating prices, they will await the result of the forensic report.

He also earlier said that Eskom would employ a few independent experts to give the power utility's board an arms length view of its plans.

Gordhan says load shedding contracts the economy, and the plan is to make sure as far as possible that Stage 2 load shedding is cut down next year.

"Ideally the kind good good numbers we saw from the third quarter - 2.2% growth - is what Eskom doesn't want to be seen messing around with."

He also says the Eskom team is working to increase stockpiles of coal at power stations to 33 days.

06 Dec 2018

Gordhan has said that says all senior Eskom senior managers have been asked to cancel leave, and they will be physically visiting power stations throughout the country.

He says he wants to see more urgency.

06 Dec 2018

Gordhan has said there is only one energy expert in the department of public enterprises, and this capacity was run down during the time of his predecessor.

"We need to strengthen the department's capacity to monitor what is going on."

06 Dec 2018

Gordhan now talks about why there has been load shedding.

He says that while Eskom has 47 000 megawatts in installed capacity, it can currently only use 26 000 to 27 000 MW.

Between 9 000 and 11 500 MW of installed capacity is not contributing to the grid as these generating units are being repaired after breakdowns.

Then it has to keep a reserve margin of 2 500.

06 Dec 2018

Gordhan says that a team will look at whether load shedding schedules are correct on the ground, as many complaints have been received to say they are not.

He also says Eskom must improve how it communicates that load shedding has started, saying a tweet is not enough.

06 Dec 2018

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says Eskom was "one of the centres of state capture" and its current difficulties stem, in part, from the state capture project, together with old power stations.